Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698941789121.pdf (South Africa)
News Bulletin Men s Dialogue 2 2 J u n e 2 0 2 0 Parliament: Leading men speak to the Nation To curb these atrocities, they recognised the role that the Men’s Dialogue can play in society to raise our consciousness about issues affecting women and children.
In response to the serious spike in gender-based violence (GBV), the offices of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (NA), and the Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), hosted the Father’s Day National Men’s Dialogue to engage men directly to find Mr Lechesa Tsenoli Ms Sylvia Lucas possible interventions in the fight against this (GBV) pandemic.
Opening the Men’s Dialogue, the Deputy Speaker of the NA, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli, said the Men’s Dialogue Forum constitutes an ongoing discussion to combat the scourge of GBV.

“We are here to continue the relay and to carry a baton that was left to us by those who came before us,” he said.

He added that: “We all strive for a country that is free of violence, a country in which all genders live together as equals.

That is the guiding principle of our endeavours.

And that is an important base for humanity.


“We also need to reflect on the critical contribution that this forum will make.

Or, in other creative ways, we can come up with something to build on what we have achieved so far to address gender-based violence.

Most importantly, we need to communicate our resolves, monitor and evaluate their effectiveness,” he added.
Also speaking at the Forum, Mr Ntando Yola, of the South African Aids Council Men’s Sector, said today is not a happy Father’s Day because as fathers “we have a role and responsibility to contribute to society, that must be free of women abuse, in which children do not live in fear”.

“In the midst of the ills we are experiencing, we all have a responsibility to make amends.
To that effect, we organised men to stand against all forms of violence in our society, to ensure that men, as a collective, stand against all forms of violence against women and children,” he added.

Mr Yola said to curb these atrocities, they recognised the role that the Men’s Dialogue can play in society to raise our consciousness about issues affecting women and children.
2 Men’s Dialogue Parliament must make the sex offenders register public and easily accessible online, and lobby the Judicial Council to impose harsher jail sentences for perpetrators of gender-based violence GBV is now a crisis that needs urgent attention The Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Ms Sylvia Lucas, says the resurgence of violence against women is now a matter of national importance which requires Parliament’s urgent response and prioritisation.
Speaking during the Father’s Day National Dialogue, Ms Lucas said gender-based-violence (GBV) was the most extreme expression of unequal gender relations in society, and called on joint action from all sectors to “ensure a crystallised and well- coordinated response to the GBV crisis”.

“It is first and foremost a violation of human rights and global health issue that cuts across boundaries of economic, wealth, culture, religion, age and sexual orientation.
Whenever gender-based violence occurs, it is a major obstacle for ensuring gender justice, which further poses a serious threat to democratic development and public health.

GBV and femicide are huge barriers to achieving sustainable development, economic growth and stable communities,” said Ms Lucas.

She proposed, as a solution to GBV, a paradigm shift and focus on the root cause of violence, founded on gender-based power relations and gender- based discrimination.
She also called for the acceleration of the clearance of the backlogs at forensic laboratories related to gender-based violence and sexual assaults.

“Parliament must make the sex offenders register public and easily accessible online, and lobby the Judicial Council to impose harsher jail sentences for perpetrators of gender- based violence,” she recommended.
Ms Lucas said Parliament recognises the need for a nationwide response to GBV and femicide, where every sector and individual in our society can participate towards ending this scourge.

She announced that Parliament will initiate a public engagement process to solicit the views of women regarding the enactment of legislation that will fight femicide.

She said this was also a resolution of the 2019 Women’s Parliament, where women appealed to Parliament to enact legislation that will fight femicide.
According to her, Parliament will also continue to exercise its oversight role over the work of the executive in order to ensure a sustained focus in response to plans and budget allocation, so as to root out GBV and femicide.
GBV Perpetrators can change- Shai real men know that masculinity is to provide and protect, not to harm The Men’s Dialogue was facilitated by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli, and a veteran television actor, Mr Patrick Shai, an outspoken reformed perpetrator of gender-based violence (GBV), who is now doing advocacy work.

Mr Shai shared with the forum how painful it was that men who change after committing GBV, remain guilty forever in our communities.
“Change is pain, I am hurt by my past but I remain resolute to the values that I stand for, and I am not apologetic for having changed,” he said.

The forum was also Mr Patrick Shai Ms Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu Dr Joe Phaahla addressed by the Deputy Ministers of Health and Social Development, Dr Joe Phaahla and Ms Hendrietta Bogopane- Zulu, respectively, who also added their voices in calling for a joint effort to end gender-based violence.
relations, and leave deep scars on our society that result in psychosocial trauma – and adversely affect social cohesion, and also lead to the stigmatisation of survivors, and have negative developmental outcomes.

The forum also heard that the patterns and persistence of gender- based violence are interwoven into social norms and power “We have learnt from HIV that stigma itself is a pandemic, and we have a lot of stigmas in this country which will destroy the nation,” warned Deputy Minister Bogopane-Zulu.
Deputy Minister Phaahla said: “It is up to us as parents to instil values of citizenry in our children, and to tell our boys not to glorify violence, and set high values through committed fatherhood to promote non-violence in our homes and communities.
Real men protect their families, real men know that masculinity is to provide and protect, not to harm.” Men’s Dialogue 3 All men must change the way we think about women, says Rev Storey Rev Professor Peter Storey, a former Methodist Bishop and President of the South African Council of Churches said that among the complex reasons behind gender-based violence (GBV), culture is an important factor.
“Some cultures have been more successful than others in abolishing male dominance,” he said, “but too many males in our country treat culture as a god; they hide behind ‘my culture’ to excuse misuse and abuse of women.” Culture is not a static thing and patriarchy is no longer acceptable, the Rev Storey continued.
“Women are not property and all of us males in all cultures need to be challenged to recognise the full autonomy and status of women, and to behave accordingly.” He said that the culture of male dominance and insensitivity to gender violence manifested itself also at police stations, where female victims of GBV were supposed to enjoy some temporary refuge.

“Regrettably, at police stations women are exposed to the perpetuation of violence.
When they seek to lay a charge against perpetrators, they are often laughed at and ridiculed by the police,” added Rev Storey.

“In this regard, the South African Police Service are a disgrace.

They are part of the problem instead of being part of the answer.” He said that a massive, ongoing education drive was necessary to curb GBV, to remove these stereotypes from the minds of men.

Churches could play an important role, but they too were often guilty of patriarchy.
“When churches treat women as second-class members, they must not be surprised if their male members get the wrong message.” He also hoped that women would become more militant in their struggle against violence that targets them, and that every institution in the land needed to be pressured to embrace the message that “Black Women’s Lives Matter”.

“In 2003, Christian and Muslim women in Liberia even withheld sex from their spouses to help stop a war.
What would happen if South African women did the same until the GBV that is injuring so many of them ceased?

Maybe it would stop the war against women in our land.” Rev Professor Peter Storey Mr Oswald Lynch We need to fight gender-based violence as a society Mr Russel de Vree Insession writers spoke to men in the City of Cape Town’s Cape Flats communities, where violent crime including abuse against women and children is often reported by the media.
The Cape Flats townships that are always referred to as “violent crime hotspots” include Bonteheuwel, Elsie’s River, Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Heideveld, Hanover Park, Mitchells Plain, and Grassy Park.
Mr Oswald Lynch, a veteran community activist whose activism started before the forced removals era on the Cape Flats and who has stayed in many communities on the Cape Flats, including Vasco, Goodwood, Elsie’s River, Bishop Lavis and now in Mitchells Plain, said that from his perspective, gender- based-violence (GBV) is entrenched in working- class homes.
“It can be said that the current violence is committed by our young men whose role models are their fathers, who abused and continue to abuse their wives.

There are, however, other deep socio-economic factors that are the fundamental causes.
The question is, how can be stop the cable of socialisation that passes this problem of GBV from one generation to the next.” Education, economic emancipation and the provision of decent houses to the needy, in addition to the promotion of morals in our communities, are among the solutions to stop GBV Mr Lynch believes.

to resolve itself.

It calls for mass action in order to remove it.

It is with us in our communities and its victims are women in our communities.
We must come together to defeat it.” Mr Russel de Vree, who is a son of an African man and a coloured woman, and who also stayed in different communities in the Cape Flats, also holds a view that GBV is a manifestation of a very deep and complex problem that will require a concerted effort to eradicate.

He attributed GBV entirely to the system of apartheid.
“Unfortunately, the problem is not going Mr Shakes Mashengqana of Khayelitsha’s Site B Section said the problem is the failure of the family and the church units in the community to mould a child.

He said families have abandoned their responsibility of instilling the right values in children, including the value of Ubuntu.

Instead, parents rely on schools for the inculcation of discipline in their children, Mr Mashengqana believes.
Mr Shakes Mashengqana “As long as the family unit is folding its hands and just dumping the child at school for the inculcation of values in the mind of the child, the problem of GBV is going to remain alive and very dangerous in this advanced era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” 4 Men’s Dialogue We must flatten the curve of GBV Insession writers talked to men in the street and leaders of communities across racial lines in the False Bay area of the City of Cape Town about the growing problem of gender- based-violence (GBV).
These men argued that the government has proven that it has the capacity to prevent what is dangerous to the people by successfully flattening the curve of the spread of the coronavirus.

Therefore, it should be able to deal with violence against women.

Furthermore, it is not by and alcohol.

It must just the country.


They must leave the issue of solving a heavenly miracle that act.” if the government is apply the laws that the problem of violence the government flattens able to deal successfully are there.

That Men’s to the government, it is the curve of a fast and with coronavirus, he went Parliament is not going to going to worsen instead of sophisticated coronavirus.
on to say, it can certainly assist, I am not optimistic flattening.” They did it by putting deal with gender-based in that regard, Sir.” together scientific and violence.

strident strategies to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Gorahd Peterson of Macassar Township said: Mr Aristole Labo said: “I am a refugee in South Africa and I have been These same methods must be applied in the case of “The government created here for some years.

regulations with speed South Africans have GBV.


Mr Paul Ferrera of Somerset West said: “The government knows that the source of the problem of domestic violence and gender-based violence (GBV) is substance abuse to fight the spread of the abandoned everything to coronavirus pandemic and the government and the has done that successfully.

hands of the government There are strong laws are full.
It depends on all in South Africa to fight South Africans to stop all whatever violence that forms of violence, including emerges.

The government the xenophobic one.

As fails to apply the laws of long as South Africans Mr Khaya Diza of Somerset West’s Lwandle Township said: “It is puzzling that the government calls on everybody to fight gender-based-violence, yet the same government makes GBV offenders feel comfortable in prison and releases them from jail before they complete their jail sentences.
So long as there is no effective punishment this won’t stop.” ‘Communities have a role to play in raising the boy child’ The participants who that GBV must be dealt Young Men’s Guild, Rev the formation of a young represented a wide spectrum of men’s with at its roots as Nkosinathi Geja, called for a man in the community, what is happening is a mind shift on the biological and all those who did that organisations in the Men’s manifestation of a very definition of the word shared the title “father”.
Dialogue made far-reaching deep and dangerous “father”, which he called and cutting-edge proposals problem.

Education and “very narrow”.

He said the “Our forebears kept the to fight gender-based- rehabilitation were among word father is a title that in correct meaning of the violence (GBV).

the list of the proposed its original meaning meant word father, and we Rev Nkosinathi Geja strategies.

The role of worth emulation.


must reclaim that correct Our forebears kept the correct meaning of the word father, and we must reclaim that correct definition They said all the available churches and traditional definition.
It is that platforms must be used authorities was highlighted Rev Geja appealed to correct definition which to inculcate in the mind as very critical in the African communities to will certainly assist in the of a boy child correct implementation of those reclaim the lost inheritance efforts of education and morality and the values of strategies, particularly that went with the title rehabilitation of men, Ubuntu.
Families, schools, strategies on the education father, and which was one especially the young universities, churches and of the values of Ubuntu.

of the pillars in the creation ones, as the title father in traditional authorities were of a man.
He said at the essence calls for collective urged to come together to Moving the vote of thanks crux of the overarching responsibility of the ensure that the boy child is to all the participants, the meaning of the word was formation of a boy child taught the right values.

President of the Methodist that everybody in the into manhood.” The participants agreed Church of Southern Africa’s community played a role in